Derailment study shows need for more pipelines

Problem to persist 20 years until more pipelines are built

The downtown core lies in ruins Thursday, July 11, 2013 in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, Canada. The first victim of a runaway oil train's explosive derailment in the Quebec town was identified Thursday, more than five days since the disaster, which left behind a scorched scene so dangerous that it slowed the search for 50 people presumed dead. (AP Photo/Ryan Remiorz, The Canadian Press)

And those are the good years. If one of these trains derails in an urban area, the blast radius from an explosion could kill 200 people and cause $20 billion in damage, according to a federal study the Associated Press reported on over the weekend.

The Department of Transportation made the calculations last year and released the report in July with no fanfare. It's no wonder. The report came out just as the industry was fighting new regulations that will require railroads to use safer, more expensive tankers to carry millions of barrels of crude oil and ethanol to refineries. Lobby groups said the industry needs seven years to complete the transition to the new standards.

The report also reinforced the danger of crude by rail that was revealed when a derailment in Lac-Megantic, Quebec killed 42 people. The AP discovered the report while reporting on the latest derailment in West Virginia that forced hundreds of families to flee.

At the heart of the problem, though, is the lack of pipelines to deliver these products where they need to go. While U.S. oil production has increased more than 40 percent since 2008, the pipeline infrastructure has not kept up.

The Keystone XL pipeline is the most famous example. Millions of barrels of Canadian crude are coming to the Gulf Coast by rail because that pipeline has been caught up in legal and political wrangling. But for every Keystone, there are hundreds of other pipelines delayed by landowners reluctant to sell their land and environmental groups worried about ecological disruption and leaks.

The Transportation Department report, though, tells us the cost of those delays.

When industry players want to underpay for land or skimp on safeguards, they delay construction of their pipelines. When environmentalists decide the best way to protest tar sand mining is to block a pipeline, they are putting lives at risk. And when policymakers create room for either side to game the system, they must take responsibility for the costs.

Of course, there will be an actuary somewhere who will argue that 10 derailments and $4 billion a year in damage for the next 20 years is an acceptable price to pay. But I'm not buying it, and the people who lost their loved ones and homes in Lac-Megantic aren't buying it either.

Chris Tomlinson has written commentary on business, energy and economics for the Houston Chronicle since 2014. Before joining the Chronicle, he spent 20 years with The Associated Press reporting on politics, conflicts and economics from more than 30 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Europe. He’s also the author of the New York Times bestseller Tomlinson Hill, and he produced the award-winning documentary film by the same name. Both examine the history and consequences of race, politics and economics in Texas.